AB 187, as introduced, Bonta. Ammunition.
Existing law prohibits that a handgun ammunition vendor, as defined, from selling, offering for sale, or displaying for sale, any handgun ammunition in a manner that allows that ammunition to be accessible to a purchaser without the assistance of the vendor or employee thereof. Existing law requires, subject to exceptions, that handgun ammunition vendors obtain a thumbprint and other information from ammunition purchasers, as specified.
This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would establish a tax on all ammunition sold in retail stores and gun shows in the state and direct tax revenue to a fund to prevent crime in high-crime areas of the state.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NO
Bill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.
It is the intent of the Legislature that would enact legislation to establish a tax on all ammunition sold in retail stores and gun shows in the state and direct the revenue from the tax to a high-crime prevention fund for crime prevention efforts in high-crime areas of the state.

(That is, still a 'spot' bill, detailed text to come)

__________________The Legislature is in recess. We're immune from most further mischief until the next session begins, late December 2017.

There is no value at all complaining or analyzing or reading tea leaves to decide what these bills really mean or actually do; any bill with a chance to pass will be bad for gun owners.

They tax cigarets supposedly for health treatment reasons. They could use the new health car laws to regulate ammunition because it contains lead and combustible chemicals. Use tax and NOT ammo tax per se.
They are throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.

__________________
"Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."
-- Frederick Douglass --

“I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted.”
– Frederick Douglass --

It just bothers me how so many of these bills basically cubby-hole all gun owners as the cause/source of all violent gun crime... and this one extends it in a manner such that we are expected to pay for efforts to "fix the problem" with some nebulous fund in Sacramento somewhere...

I'm just an Engineer in the 'burbs who happens to like shooting... lolwut?

So how do we know if something has been taxed on a box of ammo? Will it have stickers on it like a pack of cigarettes?

Welcome to the new moonshine biz. Ammo runners from across the border.

Instead of build parties we'll have to start having border ammo buy parties. Arizona is already courting Remington, I bet they will be very happy to have a lot of Californians hopping the border to buy ammo in their state.

It just bothers me how so many of these bills basically cubby-hole all gun owners as the cause/source of all violent gun crime... and this one extends it in a manner such that we are expected to pay for efforts to "fix the problem" with some nebulous fund in Sacramento somewhere...

I'm just an Engineer in the 'burbs who happens to like shooting... lolwut?

Instead of build parties we'll have to start having border ammo buy parties. Arizona is already courting Remington, I bet they will be very happy to have a lot of Californians hopping the border to buy ammo in their state.

So how do we know if something has been taxed on a box of ammo? Will it have stickers on it like a pack of cigarettes?

Welcome to the new moonshine biz. Ammo runners from across the border.

I support the Stamp Tax idea. That went over well before the first War for Independence. Perhaps it can spark another return to freedom-hopefully with less bloodshed this time?

__________________"What is a moderate interpretation of the text? Halfway between what it really means and what you'd like it to mean?""The cases will publish forever the discouraging truth that the Supreme Court of the United States favors some laws over others, and is prepared to do whatever it takes to uphold and assist its favorites."
-Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court Justice

I can see it now. Someone rents a schoolbus and a 14 foot unsullied trailer for a road trip to Arizona ...

Or perhaps a CalGuns "road trip"? I certainly hope that it turns out better than that deep sea fishing trip. I still can't believe that we all lost all of our weapons...at least no one drowned thanks to those CalGuns swimming lessons.

__________________"What is a moderate interpretation of the text? Halfway between what it really means and what you'd like it to mean?""The cases will publish forever the discouraging truth that the Supreme Court of the United States favors some laws over others, and is prepared to do whatever it takes to uphold and assist its favorites."
-Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court Justice

Please do not pursue AB187. Gun ownership is a Constitutional right. Taxing ammunition sales is the equivalent of a poll tax on voting and has been ruled unconstitutional under the 14th amendment (please see the 1966 case of Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections). Your proposed legislation is probably unconstitutional and if passed will open this state to litigation it can't afford. Thank you for your consideration on this issue.

My response? An error on the website: Address is not in District. Please contact your District Representative.

I guess the guy wants to pass laws that affect everyone in the state, but doesn't want to hear about it...

-Ruskie

__________________
The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed - where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.

Please do not pursue AB187. Gun ownership is a Constitutional right. Taxing ammunition sales is the equivalent of a poll tax on voting and has been ruled unconstitutional under the 14th amendment (please see the 1966 case of Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections). Your proposed legislation is probably unconstitutional and if passed will open this state to litigation it can't afford. Thank you for your consideration on this issue.

My response? An error on the website: Address is not in District. Please contact your District Representative.

I guess the guy wants to pass laws that affect everyone in the state, but doesn't want to hear about it...

-Ruskie

They're all setup like that. I tried to do that for the members of both public safety committees and was denied. Unfortunately, phone calls it is.

__________________
"When you get the (men) to the range, you just get the men. But when you bring the (women) to the range, you get the (whole family). And that's what's going to save our 2nd Amendment."--Dianna Liedorff

"Since self-preservation is the 1st law of nature, we assert the...right to self-defense. The Constitution...clearly affirms the right of every American...to bear arms. And as Americans, we will not give up a single right guaranteed under the Constitution." --Malcolm X

__________________
Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace. -- James Madison

The Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms. -- Samuel Adams, Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 86-87 (Pearce and Hale, eds., Boston, 1850)

Seems like I remember 2004 when they passed Prop 63 which was an extra 1% tax on people making a million or more. I also remember reading that they have more money from that tax than they can spend on mental health and in 2012 I seem to remember someone calling for an audit of the funds because they were using it for native american sweat therapy and yoga.

I was listening to a local radio talking head (bay area) yesterday and this is exactly what his vision is to "change our gun crazy personal habits". Tax us into submission, he compared it to tobacco, publicly shun us as in smoking bans and taxes. He supports our right to own whatever guns he thinks is OK but not allow us to afford to purchase or shoot them. This I believe is our biggest challenge and it will be starting at the local level.

I was listening to a local radio talking head (bay area) yesterday and this is exactly what his vision is to "change our gun crazy personal habits". Tax us into submission, he compared it to tobacco, publicly shun us as in smoking bans and taxes. He supports our right to own whatever guns he thinks is OK but not allow us to afford to purchase or shoot them. This I believe is our biggest challenge and it will be starting at the local level.

What he doesn't get is that tobacco isn't a right under the Constitution and can therefore be taxed. Levying a tax on a constitutional right has already been determined to be a violation of the 14th Amendment.

-Ruskie

__________________
The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed - where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.

They're all setup like that. I tried to do that for the members of both public safety committees and was denied. Unfortunately, phone calls it is.

Unless you happen to consider the local Walmart in his district as your secondary address. I may or may not consider quite a few Walmarts in districts whose representatives that I'm trying to get my point across to as my homes away from home. . . Oh and I've received auto responses that would make me assume that my messages were at least received, albeit ignored.